Concrete canvas: Mexico City graffiti artists cite Diego Rivera as an influence, but zero-tolerance police and residents paint them criminals.

In the early hours of a sunny Sunday morning, two young men in baseball caps spray-painted a mural on a car dealership in their working-class neighborhood on the capital's east side.

While a friend watched for police, the pair sketched a dark-skinned person clutching prison bars that were soaked in blood. At the bottom of the mural, was spelled: "Libertad de Expresion," which means freedom of expression.

"We won't stop spray painting, even if we get thrown in jail," said one of the artists. "Expressing yourself is a basic necessity."

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Mexico City authorities are cracking down on graffiti writers who have covered many walls of the hemisphere's largest metropolis with spray paint, upsetting many residents and tourists. Following a recommendation last August from the Giuliani Group--a consulting firm headed by former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani--the local Police Department has assembled an anti-graffiti unit of 30 officers.

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These police scour the streets looking for graffiti writers. Offenders can be fined 1,000 pesos or spend a day in jail for vandalism. However, while some people scrawl cuss words or slogans on the walls, there are many young Mexicans who use spray paint to decorate their streets with colorful caricatures and elaborate murals. Graffiti art--a style of street painting born in New York City in the 1970s--has become immensely popular in Mexico, with as many as one in three male teenagers involved in some cities, according to local councils.

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When graffiti artists get the go-ahead from a property owner, they paint murals legally. But such opportunities are rare for the thousands of Mexican grafiteros, and much of the time they paint walls or trains without permission.

TROUBLE STARTS SOMEWHERE

Cracking down on graffiti is seen by authorities as part of a wider attack on lawlessness in the nation's chaotic capital, where nearly 500 crimes are reported daily and many more go unreported. "Young people start breaking the law by doing graffiti, and then they get involved in drugs and other criminal activities," Mexico City Police Chief Marcelo Ebrard said at a recent news conference.

When Giulani ran New York, crime rates fell by 65%, using the philosophy of "zero tolerance" that advocates a hard line on minor crimes to create an atmosphere of lawfulness. After being paid US$4.3 million for its advice, the Giuliani Group suggested using similar tactics in Mexico City. The recommendations were warmly received by police officials and business executives.

"You allow people to go around painting walls and the next thing they are robbing cars or getting involved in kidnapping gangs," said Jose Antonio Ortega, head of the Citizens Council for Public Security, a business-funded pressure group. Furthermore, graffiti writers spray walls to mark territory for drug traffickers and other gangs, according to Ortega.

'POPULAR MURALISM'

Youth workers, however, claim the link between graffiti and other crimes is a misconception, unsupported by evidence. On the contrary, graffiti culture allows urban youth to express themselves through art rather than crime, said Victor Mendoza of Circo Volador, a culture center aimed at youth in Mexico City's run-down Jamaica neighborhood.

"Graffiti is a valid form of expression that gives meaning to the lives of many young people who have no access to education or the media," Mendoza said. The Circo Voladar center joined forces with the capital's culture ministry in an extensive study on Mexican graffiti art, which was subsequently published on the Internet (www.graffitiarte.org). The study concludes that the artistic graffiti movement in Mexico is "nothing less than a new form of popular muralism."

Like Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros, famous Mexican muralists of the early 20th century, Mexican graffiti artists use characters from the nation's colorful history in their artwork.

"Sometimes we use images of heroes like Emiliano Zapata or Cuauhtemoc," said Freddy, a graffiti artist from Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, a sprawling working-class city just east of the capital, referring to the hero of Mexico's 1910-17 revolution and the last Aztec king.

"Through the graffiti movement, we express ourselves and our cultural identity," he said.

Freddy helped form the New Life Movement, a group of 600 graffiti artists, and worked with the Nezahualcoyotl City Council to find spaces where they could spray walls legally.

Local officials were so impressed by the quality of the artwork that they invited some of the graffiti writers to paint a vast mural on the walls of the city hall.

"Many of the young people here are marginalized but they have a lot of talent. They need spaces to express themselves," said Martin Rosales, assistant to the Nezahualcoyotl mayor. "It is no good repressing them without giving them alternatives." However, the tactics of the Nezahualcoyotl council have not stopped local teenagers from covering the municipality with illegal graffiti.

"There is no control there," said Jose Luis Zanela, head of Mexico City's anti-graffiti police. "We need to restore order and respect for public buildings."

ADRENALINE AND PAINT REMOVAL

Using a new specialized paint developed by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the police unit is cleaning up the city center considerably, according to Zanela. When the paint is applied to a surface, graffiti sprayed on afterward can be washed away easily.

Mexico City's anti-graffiti cops have no jurisdiction in Nezahualcoyotl, which is located in the State of Mexico, but Freddy said he has been harassed by the squad when going into the capital.

"The Mexico City police department has taken a very aggressive stance," he said. "They confuse the artistic graffiti movement with vandals or demonstrators who paint political slogans. We do all our work legally."

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However, for some of the young grafiteros, there is no clear line between artists who paint with permission and those who break the law. A 22-year old graffiti painter who calls himself "Jedi" has painted several legal murals but also likes to paint illegally on trains and buildings.

"It is cool doing legal work because you have time and you know the piece won't be removed," Jedi said. "But I love the adrenaline you get doing a piece and knowing the police could come at any moment."

Ioan Grillo is a Mexico correspondent for the Houston Chronicle.